Look at Cubs' underground lair reveals lavish new digs

The Cubs dug deep — 40 feet or thereabouts — for their new underground digs at Wrigley Field.

They wouldn't reveal, however, how deep Chairman Tom Ricketts dug into the club's pockets to fund the team's new 30,000-square-foot clubhouse project that features a Las Vegas-like players lounge, hyperbaric chambers, a 3,800-square-foot training room, new weight room and rehab facilities.

"This is the most expensive of all the clubhouses that were built in the modern age," Cubs business President Crane Kenney said. "But we're not commenting … on the actual number."

The facilities were revealed during a tour Tuesday, a day after the team's home-opening victory against the Reds.

Here are some highlights.

Locker room

The star of the show is circular in shape and 60 feet, 6 inches in diameter, the coincidental and precise distance from the pitcher's mound to home plate.

Forty locker stalls occupy the outside walls. Nine flat-screen televisions, saddled three apiece to pillars in the center of the room, flank a round resting area for players in the center of the circle.

Nightclub lighting accents the medium-brown lockers from which jerseys dangle from hangers. Players have plenty of storage room for clothes, bats, hats, gloves and valuables.

"This is unbelievable," third baseman Kris Bryant said Monday night. "There are so many rooms, you get lost in here."

Celebration room

The lights went out, the strobe lights warmed to a satisfying degree and reflections of a disco ball decorated the room to the tune of Calvin Harris' "Feel So Close." This is where the team goes to taste the thrill of victory for five minutes, baseball President Theo Epstein said.

The song choice was fitting because the "room" is situated within spitting distance of the team's former 11,000-square-foot, cramped locker room, which has been transformed into a batting cage.

"Oh, my gosh, it's like a club or something in there," Bryant said. "Lights everywhere."

The room, which Epstein called "great for morale," serves another purpose: preserving the new clubhouse.

"We don't want it to be trashed with crazy dance celebrations," Epstein said.

A pair of glass doors from the dining area gives way to this players hangout, where a "Welcome to the Players Lounge," Vegas-inspired sign illuminates a pingpong table and an air hockey table. Big screens scream from the walls, and guitars, affixed to a post, are available for play.

A pair of arcade basketball games highlights another part of the room, where a shuffleboard setup sits behind a plush leather couch. There is also a stainless-steel fridge and more healthy eating options than you would find at a Whole Foods.

Take a walk from the Cubs' new locker room to the dugout at Wrigley Field. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

Take a walk from the Cubs' new locker room to the dugout at Wrigley Field. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

These rooms frame the clubhouse. Hyperbaric chambers, saunas and many other machines with hard-to-pronounce names will help the Cubs get and stay healthy.

Kyle Schwarber, who was lost for the season with a torn ACL and LCL, will be able to mend under the watchful eye of the Cubs in Chicago rather than at the team's spring training facility in Arizona.

The team has on-site X-ray machines to save trips to local hospitals. Even the barbells are decorated with the Cubs logo.

Joe Maddon's office

An opened bottle of wine sits on a table behind the manager's desk. Two more wine holders, and 11 more bottles to almost fill them, sit nearby. A box of Maddon's trademark T-shirts, still in plastic, sits at the ready in a corner of the room. A private bathroom finishes it off.

A version of this article appeared in print on April 13, 2016, in the Sports section of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Moving into a land of luxury - No expense spared during construction of new clubhouse" —
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